1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a gas discharge display device and, more particularly, to an improvement in a method of using an insulating barrier group to define a gas discharge section.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in Japan Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 59-178476 and 58-16433, in manufacturing a gas discharge display device generally known as a plasma display panel, a pair of glass substrates are arranged to oppose each other at a predetermined gas discharge gap. Each glass substrate has, in its inner surface, a plurality of vertical electrodes covered with a dielectric layer as required and a plurality of horizontal electrodes at positions to oppose the vertical electrodes. The pair of glass substrates are hermetically encapsulated by an encapsulating material. A predetermined discharge gas is sealed in the gas discharge gap. The gas discharge gap is uniform at any part of the substrates. Discharge is performed in a predetermined space defined by the insulating barrier group. FIG. 1 shows a general structure of such a gas discharge display device and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line X of FIG. 1.
In order to form the insulating barrier group, a screen printing method, or a lift-off method using a mask, are usually adopted. The screen printing method is used most often. According to the screen printing method, as described, for example, in Japan Patent Application (OPI) No. 58-150248, an insulating powder such as a glass powder is made into a paste for printing. Using a mesh mask for screen printing, the paste is printed at a resolution of, e.g., about 3 pairs/mm (each pair consists of a line or dot and a space) for a small display to have a predetermined thickness. In this case, printing is repeated at least 3 to 4 times and a maximum of about 10 times while maintaining the above resolution until the paste has the predetermined thickness. Therefore, precise alignment is needed and the flowing of paste must be prevented in every printing step. The paste film thickness must be controlled at a high precision so that the final height of the paste is uniform. In this manner, this repeated paste printing process is very cumbersome and its yeild is low. In order to overcome this drawback, printing must be performed by a skilled worker with care and a long time, resulting in high costs.